July 20, 2006

Project Runway Season 3

Okay. I know. You can't believe I'm getting involved with another reality show but I just can't help myself. I watched Project Runway's second season and now I'm hooked. The queenie and bitchy personalities, the bizarre and unrealistic challenges, plus the seemingly endless barage of endorsements and celebrity cameos all add up to one successful hour of weekly entertainment.

I wasn't going to write about. I swear. But then I read my blog friend's post on the new season and was inspired to write my own take on the show.

The first episode of the show was absolutely ridiculous which is probably why I didn't write about it. The contestants had to take stuff found in their hotel rooms and turn it into fashions that reflected who they were as designers. When in your life will you ever have to do that to prove yourself on the job? Never. That's like someone telling you to go to the 99 cent store and make a dish that reflect your true waitressing personality. It's unfair.

Last night's episode featured the first of many ridiculous cameos, I'm sure.

The "client" was Tara Conner and their assignment was to design a dress that she will wear at the Miss Universe pageant. (Vera Wang showed up later in the episode to judge the final dresses). They had two days and three hundred dollars to come up with something. Again . . . if these designers were truly bidding on a job like this, they would probalby spend weeks designing and constructing something but in REALITY TV world, they had two days.

Some of the designers came up with very beautiful skteches within the thirty minute deadline. One genius, Andrea, came up with nothing and in her one on one interview with Miss America asked how she felt about Empire waists.

The idea was that the seven designers that impressed Tara the most with their sketches would then pick a partner from the remaining seven designers to assist with the execution of their design. It was painful to watch the designers picking team mates because no one wanted to partner with Angela and with reason I think. She admittedly has no experience with gown design and no one wanted to be saddled with the weight of her inexperience.

She ended up with Vincent.

So the highlight of last night's show ended up being Vincent arguing with this strange designer who doesn't sketch. Vincent is a disaster but what a fun disaster. He's a fine designer I'm sure, but he's really bad at communicating with others. It's hard to understand what he's saying from one moment to the next. He's also surprisingly straight. He talks like a gay guy from New York City but he's married with a kid. So I learned again that I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover or it's affectation for that matter. Angela criticized Vincent while he excluded her from doing any of the work on the dress.

The other designer who stands out for me is Jeffrey Sebelia - not because he's a good designer but because he's got words tattooed on his neck in script. I guess he's a good designer. His stuff looks like he ripped dresses apart and sewed them back together. I don't get it.

Anyway, the best personality they ever had on the show was eliminated last night.

Malan Breton was really cool. He is self-taught and from Long Island City so I was rooting for him. He has an eclectic background and an interesting accent be it real or affected. I liked him and I was sorry to see him go. Especially since he took a risk and designed something to be judged while that crow Angela didn't even draw a sketch.

It didn't seem fair.

I think the person who didn't even try should have been eliminated and that was Angela.

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